


Rooftop

by plumberkatherine



Category: Newsies (1992), Newsies - All Media Types, Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Gen, i didn't proofread this, i love smalls okay, it's hella sappy, seriously though smalls is my fave!!!!!, smalls/jack friendship 5ever, this is really bad but whatever, this is way too sappy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-27
Updated: 2017-05-27
Packaged: 2018-11-05 08:42:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,071
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11009922
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/plumberkatherine/pseuds/plumberkatherine
Summary: Smalls wants to know why Jack turned his back on the strike at the rally and chases him to the rooftop.(takes place between Brooklyn's Here and Something To Believe In)





	Rooftop

**Author's Note:**

> So i didn't proofread this and it's also really short and i can't write but whatever enjoy!!!!

Smalls was on a mission.

Even when the strike first started, she was ready to back up Jack Kelly and the Manhattan guys no matter what. She respected Jack more than most of the leaders in the other boroughs. He always did what he thought was right and stuck by it even when times got tough. Not only that, but he was the only leader who didn’t care that she was a girl as long as she led the Bronx newsies well. 

Now she wasn’t sure she knew Jack all that well. At Medda’s theatre an hour earlier, he had tried to speak against the strike that he himself had started. There’s no way Jack would have done that. Even if he had seemed sincere, there was still no reason for him to have turned around completely in his stance. When Jack stormed out, the Bronx newsies had nearly rioted. It was all Smalls could do to keep them at the theatre in hopes of talking to the other boroughs. After tense discussion with Spot Conlon and the Brooklyn crew, she sent the Bronx boys home to get some sleep before selling. 

For her it was time to find Jack.

It was completely dark by the time she arrived at the Manhattan lodging house. It hadn’t taken her much time to get there from Medda’s theatre, but being alone at night on someone else’s turf scared her more than she liked to admit. The Delanceys were also after any newsie they could get their dirty hands on. She had no time to think about this, however. As she walked into the lodging house, her breath caught in her throat.

Where the Manhattan guys would usually be running, fighting, or playing poker, the whole room was quiet. They looked beat. Even Romeo, who had one of the biggest mouths in Lower Manhattan, sat silently with an arm slung around Specs’ shoulder. 

“To what do we owe the pleasure, miss leader of ta’ Bronx?” Race said dryly with his cigar between his teeth. The other newsies stayed where they were, sitting quietly or staring off into space.

“Where’s Kelly?” she said. She tried her best not to scowl at him. It was bad enough she was on their turf, but she knew they didn’t like that a girl was in charge of a whole borough of newsies.

This time, Davey walked over to her and responded. “He’s on the rooftop. No one wants to talk to h—“ Smalls cut him off.

“I do.” A couple of the newsies scoffed at that.

“Ya’ really think he’d listen to you?” Finch jeered. She glared at him.

“I don’t see you standin’ up.” With that, she walked away and started up the ladder.

Smalls had just started to pull herself up onto the roof when she heard Jack’s voice.

“Race, I swear you better—“ Jack stopped when he turned around and saw Smalls, standing just barely illuminated by the moon. The exasperation on his face turned to confusion. 

“Smalls?” Jack and Smalls had known each other nearly as long as they had been selling papes, but in the last few years had drifted apart. When they both became the leaders of their boroughs, taking care of their newsies became more important to both of them than maintaining their friendship. After all, it had been almost ten months since they last talked.

All she wanted now was to put her arm around him and tell him she missed him. Tell him she wanted the strike to be over. Tell him she wanted her best friend back. Instead, she remembered how he’d just betrayed every newsie in New York. How he’d tried to shut down the strike that he had started. Now, all that came out was anger. “What the hell, Kelly?”

“What?” 

“Why the hell’d you do it?”

“Smalls, I—“

“You think the newsies has anybody else to count on? You think they’s got another hero? They don’t! They never will! They’s all countin’ on you, Jack!” She was yelling now. She saw each one of her words hitting him like a punch to the jaw, but she didn’t care. He needed to know how much he had hurt them. How much he had hurt her. 

“You’s the only newsie in the city who can lead these boys ‘stead of lettin’ them starve and sleep on the street! For the sake of every kid in this damned city, Jackie, please!” Her voice broke on the last word. 

Jack stayed silent for a moment. Smalls searched his eyes, trying to decipher what he was thinking. Finally, Jack swallowed. “Smalls, what I said at the rally, I—“ He took a deep breath. “I’m sorry. They’s countin’ on me, but Pulitzer, he- he told me if I didn’t tell them to stop strikin’ he’d send you’s all to the Refuge.” Smalls’ breath caught in her throat when he said that. She couldn’t go back there. She wouldn’t make it this time. 

“I had to do it,” Jack said, his voice breaking. “I had to.”

Smalls let his words hit her, and she felt awful.

All this time she thought he had betrayed the newsies but he was really trying to save them. 

She felt her eyes filling with tears. How could she have done this to him? How could she have thought he turned his back on everyone and everything he loved? She tried to say she was sorry. “Jack, I –“

Before she could finish, Jack had pulled her into a tight embrace, and it was all she could do not to cry into his shoulder. They had both been to hell and back. They had both slept on the dark city streets. They had both gone to the Refuge. Yet here they were, standing on a rooftop with the whole of New York at their feet, and a new century to make their own.

Smalls adjusted her cap and smiled through teary eyes. “I missed you, Kelly.”

“Missed you too, kid.” Jack grinned down at her.

She felt a sudden gust of wind remind her that there was still a strike going on and a band of newsies to lead back in the Bronx.

“I should start headin’ back home. They’s probably missin’ me already,” she said with her trademark gap-toothed grin. As she started climbing down the fire escape, she turned back one last time. 

“Friends, Jackie?”

“Always.”

**Author's Note:**

> btw kudos and comments would be rad!!!! thanks for reading!!!!


End file.
